Spring

Well, sort-of. The air has lost its chill, and there is a lovely damp-earth-and-growing sort of smell as I walk around the town today. One of the benefits of living where we do is the lack of pollution - there is lichen growing on trees and paving right in the town centre. It will, of course, be frosty and cold again: you really can't be sure of good growing weather until May is out (that's the plant, not the month) properly.

The old farming advice was: if you can drop your breeks and sit on the field, then you can sow. I think I'll pass on that one! I do, however, need to start thinking about tubs for the beer garden, and possibly window boxes for the front of the hotel. The council provides hanging baskets quite late on in the season, but they are pretty dire and don't last despite our best efforts at watering.